Purported NSA Slides Refer To iPhone Owners As 'Zombies' And Steve Jobs As 'Big Brother'

According to internal NSA documents seen by SPIEGEL, the NSA has the ability to access a lot of data on smartphones.

The agency reportedly has special task forces focusing on smartphone operating systems - specifically Apple's iOS, Android, and Blackberry - as well as departments responsible for customized surveillance operations against high-interest targets.

A purported secret presentation leaked by Edward Snowden presents screengrab from Apple's iconic 1984 commercial, refers to Steve Jobs as "Big Brother," and refers to paying customers as "zombies."

The implication of the presentation is that iPhone users are somehow complicit in their own surveillance by buying iPhones in the first place.

The documents mention that "location services" used by many iPhone apps are useful to the NSA and analysts note that most customers allow location tracking out of "convenience." The NSA has claimed that it chooses not to collect location data.

The report cites several instances in which the NSA was able to retrieve personal photos from iPhones, but states that there is no evidence of large-scale spying.

From Der Spiegel:

The material contains no indications of large-scale spying on smartphone users, and yet the documents leave no doubt that if the intelligence service defines a smartphone as a target, it will find a way to gain access to its information.

Here are the slides:

The presentation included a purported user whose phone was accessed in Afghanistan.

The slide below - from a presentation called "Your target isusing a BlackBerry? Now what?" - shows an email from a Mexican government agency sent using BlackBerry encryption technology but nonethless intercepted by the NSA.